Rachel was in hospital for a day or two, two weeks ago, with reaction to typhoid shot. She appears to be over it okay. She called for a moment last Tuesday to say that she was in her village on East Coast and that it is really beautiful and we should call her back. (She had gone an hour out to a place overlooking the Bay of Antongil where she had reception. No reception in the village, but there is in the nearest town, Maroantsetra, so we shouldbe able to talk once a month when she goes there to do banking etc.) [from the Internet: On the northeast coast of Madagascar, Maroantsetra sits at the far end of the Bay of Antongil. Discover Madagascar at its best in this small and friendly little town. Located at the edge of Masoala National Park, thousands of unique species of plants and animals call Maroantsetra home.]

We were able to get Rachel and listen for about half an hour. Bad bounce-back effect on that call, so we didn’t talk much. Finally, we lost her. I think, maybe the battery on new cell phone ran out of power. Have not talked to her since. We were supposed to call yesterday (Sunday, March 19) at an agreed-upon time, but we were in NYC with big sister Sarah and did not have a landline to use. Can’t call her on our cell phone without paying a fortune. Have negotiated a rate of 50c a minute on landline through our long-distance carrier, IDT. A cheaper rate is available through Vonage, but we are not sure it is better for us for now. Have to call very often to make it worthwhile and we probably can’t do that.

Rachel said she was staying with Maya, the young woman she is replacing, in a small hut on stilts. Huts are made of reeds and banana leaf thatch. Quite sturdy and adequate for the environment; less tempting to crawling insects than concrete structures are. She will have a bed but was going to have to spend her nights as Maya’s guest sleeping on the floor mats. She will have a bicycle and helmet and Maya says that she bikes the 22 km into Maroantsetra once monthly, weather permitting. That takes about 2.5 hours, and the taxi brousse (public transport van) takes about 2 hours. (It probably stops very often along the way.) There is a toilet hole surrounded by a little thatch wall and a separate cooking hut.

For lunch they had had white rice that Maya grew herself and threshed together with a neighbor. It is indeed white, but when hand-threshed, rice is quite healthy because some of the outer husk remains thus the vitamins are not lost. It is eaten three meals a day, every day, so had better be healthy! They also had an omelet of duck egg and green onions. (Meat will very rarely be available, but eggs should not be a problem, I hope.) There is lots of fruit, I assume, and Rachel will be able to grow some or all of her own vegetables.

Rachel flies back to capital tomorrow, March 22, we think. Rick is looking into getting her a solar-powered battery charger that he noticed on line that can apparently provide energy for cell phone and IPOD. She did not bring IPOD but did take some homemade CDs and a player and solar battery charger for that. We may have to wait until we go there (hopefully in August!) and hand-carry that.

Rachel has only received one letter so far (we have sent 8, some with reading material and such as well) but other volunteers say that you do in the end receive everything. It just takes a long time. Be sure to not her new address in her own email from last week. It would be good to start using that Maroantsetra address as of now since mail takes so long to arrive.

Rachel has 5 more weeks of training near Tananarive before she takes off for her site for the two years. She is really looking forward to being there and getting to work Interestingly, Maya went to school with the daughter of a friend of ours from Tunisia and is presently applying to Brandeis (Rachel’s university) for grad school. Small world!

Best to all, Teresa (Rachel’s mom)

March 12, 2006

Dear all,

Manao ahoana! Inona no vaovao? [Hi! What’s new?]

This is my last day in Antananarivo before heading back to our
training site in Sambaina. I’ll be flying to Maroantsetra for my
permanent site visit in northeastern Madagascar on the 18th. I’ve
spent my time in town working out more concrete contact information
for my next two yaers in Madagascar.

I’ve finally found out my permanent site mailing address. WCS (the
Wildlife Conservation Society–the NGO I’ll be working most closely
with) has mail delivered from their BP in Maroantsetra once or twice a
week and will let me retrieve it from them in my village, Voloina, a
few times a week.

My permanent address in Madagascar is (please be sure to write AIR
MAIL on all letters):

Rachel Kramer, PCV
c/o Wildlife Conservation Society
BP 106
Maroantsetra 512 MADAGASCAR

For info on the Makira Conservation Site project I’ll be working on,
visit: http://www.wcs.org/Africa/Madagascar/Makira .

Also, I now have a cell phone! Hard to believe, I know. I should have
reception in Sambaina for the next five weeks of training, but after
that I’ll only be able to use the phone when I visit Maroansetra once
a month or so (no reception or electricity at my site). Would love to hear
from you!!! (The time difference in Madagascar is 8 hours ahead but while the US is on daylight savings time it will be only 7 hours).

My number is:
011-261-33-12-83253

My love to all. Life in Madagascar is tough but highly rewarding and
the biodiversity (or what remains of it) is just incredible. I love my
new home and wish you all could see it…

Do keep in touch!

All the best,
Rachel

www.rachelinafrica.com

Training in Sambaina: My walk to technical training each morning takes me along the valley outside of town where rice paddies and mangahajo are cultivated.

Laundry time: My Malagasy host cousin recently taught me how to hand wash clothes in the stream near my house. We then either lay them on the grass to dry or take them home to hang in the courtyard.

The road past Sambaina: Some of the best road goes through Sambaina (actually paved!) because of our training site’s proximity to Antananarivo. The commuinity in Sambaina is far more affluent than those we’ll live among at our permanent sites.

Me with my host cousin, Yanitra. To get to the road I often cut through the rice paddies behind us. Have to be careful not to fall off the hummocks that separate each flooded field–it’s happened a few times and is pretty icky. My house (one of the nicest in town) is the yellow cement one with the balcony in the background). Most houses in our area are packed red clay with thatch roofs.

Sunset from my Malagasy family’s balcony. This picture doesn’t do it justice at all.

Morning market in Antananarivo. I’ve avoided taking my camera about town (have already had an attempted pickpocketing) so this is all I’ve got of the capital right now…

Check October post for a link to more photos.

Hi folks!

I have internet access for a few minutes at the MEVA (Peace Corps Madagascar boarding house) after leaving the hospital in Antananarivo and before heading back to our training site in Montasoa. I had a not so fun reaction to the typhoid vaccine they gave me yesterday and ended up collapsed on the floor of my language classroom. After four more shots of epinephrin and benadryl and an IV they drove me to Tana for observation at the hospital overnight.

I’m feeling just fine now and it’s killing me that I missed my flight this morning to Maroansetra to visit my field site. The powers that be are working on getting me on another plane tomorrow, granted there’s a flight. I’m still really excited about visiting my site and am hoping my counterpart can meet me in Maroansetra so I won’t have to ride the taxi brousse to Voloina by myself this first time around. The other trainees in my group have been really supportive. This environment stage is really a special bunch.

With love,
Rachel